How To Enhance You Retail Storage and Delivery System

One of the many tenets of running a successful retail company is organization. Keeping your products organized during transport, storage, and delivery prevents hiccups that cost your business money.

Whether your retail business has been around for one year or a dozen, re-evaluating your retail storage and delivery system can improve your efficiency, quality control, and storage costs. Consider these tips to enhance your organization.

Use Stackable Totes To Maximize Vertical Space

If you aren’t taking advantage of vertical space as a storage area for your retail business, you’re wasting valuable real estate. But you will need the right equipment and setup to safely use vertical space.

Stacking boxes and containers on top of one another could create a hazard that puts your employees (and the stray customer who ventures into the storage room) at risk. Instead, invest in stackable totes that stack perfectly on top of each other, leaving no risk of toppling or swaying.

Stackable plastic totes include rigid walls and interlocking designs that allow you to stack as many totes as makes sense for your warehouse space. Pair these totes with spacious retail shelving to further maximize your vertical space.

Organize Items by Popularity

Enhancing your retail storage and delivery system isn’t just about storing items safely. Organizing them intuitively and strategically can save you time as you search for specific items and restock your floor.

Different businesses use different organizational systems, and you should take the time to find the right one for your type of products. Some organize items alphabetically, allowing them to quickly find certain items. But you may find organizing by popularity more helpful and efficient.

Through this system, you will put the most popular items near the front of your storage facilities, allowing you to easily grab these items when needed.

Choose a Labeling System — And Stick to It

Labeling makes all the difference within your retail storage system, but you need to use the same labeling system across all containers for it to be effective. This means labeling items with the same information in the same order and placing the labels in the same location across all products.

At a minimum, include the following information in your labels:

Product type
Number of products in the container

Date acquired/added to the stock room

If you want to further enhance your labeling system, include the above information on your labels and add barcodes that link to the exact product or a page with additional information about the container.

Consider Collapsible Containers To Save Floor Space & Transportation Costs

Your business likely goes through fluctuations in the amount of inventory you store in your stock room. Instead of using cardboard boxes that you dispose of after each use — or bulky totes that you’re not sure what to do with when they aren’t in use — consider collapsible containers. These totes fold down flat, allowing you to stack them out of the way when you don’t need them.

Collapsible containers can also save you space during transportation. After delivering items to wholesale buyers or other customers, you can fold down the containers during the return trip, saving space and shipping costs.

Implement Plastic Skids for Easier Movability

Your retail business needs procedures in place to move containers and totes throughout your warehouse safely and efficiently. Using plastic skids by ORBIS in place of wood pallets may make sense in certain cases. These pallet-like systems are easier to move than pallets, allowing you to transport goods throughout the warehouse without risking worker injury.

Additionally, choosing plastic pallets and skids over traditional wood options allows you to prolong your investment and reduce your business’s environmental impact. Plastic pallets can support heavy loads and feature versatile designs suitable for a wide range of retail warehouses.

Protect Items During Shipping and Transport

The methods and materials you use to pack items for transport are just as important as other aspects of your retail storage and delivery system. You need to protect your items against the bumps and mishandling that may occur during shipping. Using high-quality fabric and textile dunnage cushions within your inventory, while custom foam dunnage protects loose items in containers.

Employing the proper dunnage within your retail storage solutions also protects these items while transporting them around your warehouse. Research the right dunnage for your types of items; it’s better to go overboard than to not protect your items well enough and risk inventory loss.

ORBIS Corporation: Your Source for Integrated Reusable Packaging

By incorporating high-quality packaging, dunnage, and pallets into your retail storage and delivery system, you promote greater retail success, efficiency, cost-savings, and worker safety. ORBIS offers a range of reusable, sustainable supply chain materials, including plastic containers, metal racks, custom packaging, and more.

Call us today at 800-890-7292 to learn more, and then read about how our products can support beverage distribution.